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KAMLOOPS – Robin Ross is entering his 39th season as an NCAA, NFL and – for the first time – CFL coach.

With that many years on his football resume, history tends to repeat itself.

For instance, this is the fourth time Ross, replacing Carl Hairston as the B.C. Lions’ defensive line coach, has worked on the same staff as Jeff Tedford, the first-year head coach of the team.

Ross is also coaching second generation players such as Maxx Forde, the Lions’ rookie defensive lineman from Woodinville, Wash., who qualifies as a Canadian even though he was born in the U.S. Forde’s dad, Brian, a member of the Lions’ 1994 Grey Cup champions, was born in Montreal, and thus bequeathed to his son the right to play as a "national" in the liberal eyes of the Canadian Football League.

“Maxx’s father played for me when I was coaching at Washington State,” Ross says. “I was coaching the defensive line. Brian played middle linebacker for us. We beat USC that year for the first time in something like 32 years. I’ve been around so long I’m starting to see the second generation roll through.”

In 1986, Brian Forde, a middle linebacker, established a single season record for tackles that still stands at Washington State. He went on to play five seasons in the NFL, four of them with the New Orleans Saints, where he was used primarily on special teams as a wedge buster.

One of football’s most iconic formations, the wedge had linemen link arms and hands to become a giant human snowplow, designed to clear a path for kick returners. It since has been legislated out of the game. But the men whose job it was to smash the bunch formation are still feeling the effects from concussions and neck injuries suffered from their kamikaze-style job description.

Brian Forde, who went to play 35 games for the Lions, in the 1994-95 CFL seasons, questioned whether he wanted to expose his son to some of the same basic, and brutal, elements of the game. Yet he never stood in the way of Maxx, who clearly loved football and became accomplished at it. In high school, he was recruited by Army, Air Force, Washington State and Idaho. He picked the latter -- and never heard the end of it from WSU, his dad’s alma mater.

“I’ll see some similarities and mannerisms in Maxx that remind me of his father,” Ross says. “But Brian was a linebacker. He had a different role. Maxx is learning how to use his hands, how to use his leverage, to get off blocks as a defensive lineman. He still has a lot to learn. But he’s smart. He doesn’t make mental mistakes.”

Maxx Forde -- whose Lions’ jersey, No. 48, is the same number worn by his dad 20 years ago -- was a business, marketing and finance major at Idaho, with a minor in statistics. Thus, he’s familiar with the growing trend in football to use analytics -- advanced statistical measurements -- rather than gut instinct to gauge a player’s potential.

Football has been slower to adopt the Moneyball principles that revolutionized baseball, but the new math is starting to infiltrate front offices and alter flat-earth thinking.

According to the Lions, Maxx Forde had the best analytics of any player taken in the 2015 CFL draft, despite the fact he wasn't selected until the seventh and final round, 58th overall. His size -- six-foot-five, 270 pounds -- wingspan and 40 time are just some of the measures used for computer analysis to determine if a player is draft-worthy.

"I know about analytics, having studied them in school," Maxx says. "Test scores and analytics are good. But potential has never won a game. I just have to make sure I put it all together on the field and produce.”

What separates Forde -- the seventh round pick -- from Ese Mrabure-Ajufo -- B.C.’s first-round pick in 2015 -- is the latter’s quickness, Ross says. Both are lining up at defensive end, slotted third and fourth, respectively, on the depth chart behind Jabar Westerman and second-year player David Menard. All of them qualify as nationals, with the Lions intending to start a Canadian at one D-end spot.

“Ese probably had better college film in his senior year,” Ross says, explaining the disparity in draft postions. “Maxx had some injuries and things like that.”

“My senior year could have been a lot better,” Forde concedes. “I had an AC sprain in my shoulder the entire year. At the end, I had a high ankle sprain. My senior film isn’t something I’m super proud of.”

His challenge -- to become the second Forde in the Lions’ future -- outlines the overall difficulties of statistical analysis in the sport.

Good measurables can open doors, but probabilities don’t matter if a football player ultimately flunks the old-fashioned eyeball test.

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Maxx Forde trying to follow in dad's footsteps with Lions

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